1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to energy service business method and system.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is an increasing interest in the world in global warming and environmental preservation, and efforts for improvement are internationally made. For example, it is demanded to take energy-saving measures to business enterprises of plants and buildings, major energy consumers, to determine energy-saving target values, and achieve such target values within a certain period of time.
Research and development efforts of energy-saving techniques are made in various fields under these circumstances, including, for example, research and development of energy-saving equipment and facilities for curtailing the energy consumption, and energy-saving measures based on specific operating method or controlling method of energy-saving object facilities. In this specification, all these energy-saving equipments, energy-saving facilities, energy-saving operation and control will be called generically energy-saving facilities or measures.
In general, business enterprises demand to collect the investment cost for taking energy-saving measures by means of an energy cost capable of being curtailed through energy conservation. In addition, if the investment cost can be collected within the shortest possible period of time, it would largely promote energy-saving measures.
However, while a reference of about three years is generally believed to be desirable for collection of invested funds to be examined when an enterprise makes an equipment investment, achievement of a high energy conservation target value would require five to six years for collecting the invested funds. If the amount of curtailment of energy costs through energy conservation is smaller than initially expected, furthermore, investment collection would require more years, resulting in a problem of difficulty to adopt measures for achieving a high energy-saving target value.